Division of Wildlife Resources

OGDEN -- Because of a new management plan adopted late last year, wildlife officials in Utah are recommending a small reduction in the total number of permits issued to hunt buck deer in the state this fall.

LOGAN -- If Utah drivers take the high road and wildlife takes the low "road," everyone gets home safely.

Patty Cramer helps design underpasses and overpasses that help prevent collisions between drivers just passing through and the moose, elk, mule deer and smaller animals moving around in their home habitat.

The Utah State University wildland resource research assistant professor determines where underpasses or overpasses are needed based on past collisions and her surveillance footage.

CLEARFIELD -- Utah Division of Wildlife Resources officials now know what caused hundreds of birds to die in Clearfield a week before Christmas; however, there are still several unanswered questions.

Phil Douglass, the DWR conservation outreach manager for Northern Utah, said the toxicology results -- received Wednesday, from birds sent to a lab in Logan -- show the birds died after being exposed to Starlicide, a poison used primarily for starling population control.

"The thing that's tricky about the situation is there are two formulas of this Starlicide. One is commercial grade (used by the government) and the other is public grade, and there is no way of determining what grade it was," Douglass said. "So we know what it was, we just don't know where it came from."

CLEARFIELD -- City employees have collected approximately 400 dead European starlings, but the reason so many birds have died is still unknown.

Four of those birds are now at a lab in Logan as specialists try to determine the cause of death.

On Monday, the day after the dead birds began showing up in Kiwanis Park, 300 N. Vine St., initial reports said that the birds had been baited for population control by a wildlife agency.

OGDEN -- A young bobcat on a stroll through Ogden resulted in several calls from concerned residents to police Saturday.

A woman followed the animal west as it crossed Wall Avenue and alerted police as to its location.

The Department of Wildlife Resources captured the animal about 12:30 p.m. near 31st Street and Stephens Avenue, a dispatcher said.

OGDEN -- Ogden School District took precautions to get students home safely Thursday afternoon after officials received a report about a mountain lion sighting.